The contract between HUD and public housing agencies (PHAs) is called the annual contribution contract (ACC). The ACC requires PHAs to maintain adequate loss prevention programs, which include sufficient insurance for sites owned and managed by PHAs.

The Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system was developed by HUD to verify income and employment information for applicants and tenants in all of the agency’s assisted housing programs. Information in EIV is derived from computer matching programs initiated by HUD with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for all tenants with valid personal identifying information [name, date of birth (DOB), and S...

If a building at your site is infested with cockroaches or other such pests, getting all residents to cooperate with your efforts to control the problem is essential to your building’s well-being. Cockroaches are among the most widespread and persistent of all pest problems. In fact, in a list of the most cited deficiencies in public housing, insect or roach infestations ranked 17 out of 25.

As a site owner or manager, you must keep files containing required documents for each household. But it’s easy to make mistakes. And these mistakes can cause you to lose points on a management and occupancy review (MOR).

HUD’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) recently issued guidance addressing how refusing to rent or renew a lease based on an individual’s criminal history could violate the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Last year, in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court upheld “disparate impact” liability under the FHA.

Disability discrimination claims, which account for more than half of all fair housing complaints, are often based on disputes over requests by applicants or residents with disabilities to have assistance animals.

The reasonable accommodation provisions of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), which bans housing discrimination against individuals with disabilities, come into play whenever an individual with a disability wants to use an assistance animal in sites tha...

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status. In the most basic terms, the familial status provisions ban sites from denying housing to families with children. But you’ll have to do more than that to avoid fair housing trouble based on familial status, since discrimination claims may arise from the way you advertise vacancies, show apartments, apply occupancy standa...

If your site was inspected recently, you may have lost points for a condition that violates HUD inspection standards, but that a local law permits or even requires. For example, you may have lost points for having window guards on your site’s windows, even though your local law requires window guards. Fortunately, HUD gives you a way to challenge a Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) inspection score that was lowered because of circumstances that are out of the o...

A definite plan to deal with major emergencies at your site is an important element of providing a safe environment for your staff and residents. An emergency—such as a fire, flood, act of violence, earthquake, hurricane, or environmental disaster—can occur at your site at any time. Whatever the cause of the emergency, it’s important that your staff members be prepared and know what to do when one occurs.

Congress and HUD have established various types of preferences in an effort to provide housing to those most in need. HUD rules currently include four different kinds of preferences that apply to various programs [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 4-6(B)]. Of these four preferences, three of them apply only to certain applicants and are mandatory. These preferences are: